Scrapped Twilight Princess controller finally surfaces

Proposed Zelda controller revealed by Nubytech designer

Thought we were done with Twilight Princess stories? Sure the game's over four years old, and is about to be supplanted by the nextconsole sequel in just a few months, but sneaking in at the buzzer is asurprising revealof a proposed (but unaccepted) design for a Twilight Princess GameCube controller. The special edition pad was designed by Nubytech (famous for its RE4chainsaw controller) but never made it out the door.

Above: Looks like a Hylian shield in the center, plusornamental straps on the right handle

Above: The alleged package said controller would've shipped in

Nintendo's pretty picky about using its characters on third party controllers, so that's one strike. The looming launch of Wii and general disinterest in GameCube probably sealed the deal, especially when you consider how hard Nintendo would try to distance itself from "complicated" controllers in the early Wii months. Even if it HAD shipped, it would still be one of the extremely few Zelda-themed controllers. The only other one that comes to mind is the N64 gold controller that launched alongside Majora's Mask in 2000.

Above: Zelda usually shipped inside gold carts, so a gold controller made sense

With hindsight as your guide, would you have picked this up? I would've bought one on principle alone. Though that strap looks like it'd be a pain to work around.